Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

[So You Can Fly Now]

Q1:
Would the metagame change if Dragapult was actually 1 speed point faster than Zeraora? How significant would that change be?

Q2:
I have this weird recycle + red card set for Mew (Softboiled, Teleport, Recycle, Tspikes) but I can't seem to fit it into any team? Any uses or is this set just trash?

Q3:
Where to find heat/cheese sets? Any top players I can watch who have heat sets in their replays?

Q4:
Where's the section for Pokemon music discussion (like piano sheets)? Are there even any other communities based on pkmn music? Thanks !

 

[ImperialGamer517]

Answers:

1. Probably, yes. Since the metagame changed when Zeraora came and was 2 points faster than Pult, honestly I think every team would rotate around Dragapult.
2. Yes I think it is trash. I’d go SR + Spikes + Taunt + Skill Swap and keep the Red Card.
3. Go to the heat thread in OU Forums. It should be there.
4. This isn’t even OU related, but try looking in the Congregation of the Masses. If you can’t find any, create your own thread there.

 

[Rotten]

The voting thread for Dracovish goes up tomorrow, right? I'm assuming it either starts later or some other time tomorrow. As suspecting is supposed to end at 11:59 PM.

 

[Ruft]

The voting thread for Dracovish goes up tomorrow, right? I'm assuming it either starts later or some other time tomorrow. As suspecting is supposed to end at 11:59 PM.

Give it two and a half hours.

 

[malomyotismon]

wanting to make a team around celebi and make the most out of it. Any suggestions what works well with celebi would be great thank you :) . Nice to get other thoughts to see if people have a suggestion you have overlooked.

 

[sparkwings]

wanting to make a team around celebi and make the most out of it. Any suggestions what works well with celebi would be great thank you :) . Nice to get other thoughts to see if people have a suggestion you have overlooked.

Hey, so I've laddered with Celebi a lot this gen and wrote a draft of its analysis. I find it works really well defensively as a zeraora and conkeldurr check, being able to toxic zeraora as well as psychic both for significant damage. it has reliable recovery in the form of recover, and can easily deal with most variants of zeraora and conk. The set i run is as follows:

Hide

Celebi @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Toxic
- Recover
- U-turn / Giga Drain

With this set, you outspeed adamant diggersby and are capable of either using psychic or giga drain to deal damage, or putting it on a timer with toxic. The remaining EVs are put into bulk to maximize celebi's ability to deal with threats such as zeraora and conk. Psychic is your main stab move, toxic puts opposing threats and defensive mons on a timer, and u-turn can be used to grab momentum, while giga drain or leaf blade helps deal with primarina. iFinally, colbur berry is used as the item over leftovers because it allows you to more easily take a knock off from both zera and conk.

In terms of team composition, I find celebi to be applicable as a bulky grass on teams that struggle with zeraora or conk. At full hp, it can reliably check both of them. Outside of that, your teambuilding is relatively free. However, it's worth noting that celebi struggles to deal with defensive steels such as corviknight, jirachi, and ferrothorn, so pairing it with something like rotom-heat would help patch up its weaknesses.

 

[kazeman]

i just learned about dracovish's ban and there is one thing i don't understand, since the only problem was fishious rend's destructive power, why not only ban the move ?

 

[KirbyDude25]

i just learned about dracovish's ban and there is one thing i don't understand, since the only problem was fishious rend's destructive power, why not only ban the move ?

Arctovish exists and also gets Fishious Rend, but has lower speed and a worse typing. This makes it unviable, and a Fishious Rend ban would only hurt it more. In addition, while a specific Dracovish + Fishious Rend ban could be argued, the general first option is to ban Pokémon first instead of moves or abilities.

 

[War Incarnate]

i just learned about dracovish's ban and there is one thing i don't understand, since the only problem was fishious rend's destructive power, why not only ban the move ?

I'm not that experienced with OU, but it's only because Smogon bans pokemon over other stuff like moves or abilities, with the only exception being if a given move or ability in question has multiple good abusers that make it broken. In this case, Arctovish has Fisheous Rend but this doesn't make it broken due to its poor typing and speed.

EDIT: Sniped by the guy above me

 

[EvN]

With Vish banned, we have to expect a meta shift. The main suspect here is obviously Seismitoad. I made a post including ALL Pokémon that might be effected by the meta shift.
What do you think will be the Mons dropping / raising the most?

Also can I post my article here, asking for feedback or is there another place to go to? :)

 

[sparkwings]

With Vish banned, we have to expect a meta shift. The main suspect here is obviously Seismitoad. I made a post including ALL Pokémon that might be effected by the meta shift.
What do you think will be the Mons dropping / raising the most?

Also can I post my article here, asking for feedback or is there another place to go to? :)

Without Dravcovish, playstyles such as sand will likely see some rise. Toxapex and Ferrothorn will also be more free to run mixed defensive sets, with Toxapex no longer being forced to run Baneful Bunker. These are just a few of the changes.

If you're looking for a place to have a deeper discussion, the Metagame Discussion Thread might be a better place to go.

 

[kazeman]

With Vish banned, we have to expect a meta shift. The main suspect here is obviously Seismitoad. I made a post including ALL Pokémon that might be effected by the meta shift.
What do you think will be the Mons dropping / raising the most?

Also can I post my article here, asking for feedback or is there another place to go to? :)

for the raising i suppose anyone good against clefable but yeah for sure i see seismitoad drop quite a lot, and because of that i see zeraora not needing grass knot anymore so it will make it more of a threat, if the dlc wasn't coming at the end of the month i think it would be the next to be suspected

 

[wangjaa]

With Vish banned, we have to expect a meta shift. The main suspect here is obviously Seismitoad. I made a post including ALL Pokémon that might be effected by the meta shift.
What do you think will be the Mons dropping / raising the most?

Also can I post my article here, asking for feedback or is there another place to go to? :)

Would spe. def. Pex now be the go to? Seems like there's so many good def Pokemon that it seems ok.

 

[Ast0rga]

Why max speed Tyranitar? It's SS page has max speed and doesn't explain why. Most Rate my Team with it don't explain why and if you go into the stat pages it's always Max Atk/Speed, of course I understand the Atk part but...why Speed?

What is it so important to outspeed? I rather go Max HP/Atk instead of wasting all those EVs to get...221 Speed at level 100.

 

[Ruft]

Why max speed Tyranitar? It's SS page has max speed and doesn't explain why. Most Rate my Team with it don't explain why and if you go into the stat pages it's always Max Atk/Speed, of course I understand the Atk part but...why Speed?

What is it so important to outspeed? I rather go Max HP/Atk.

Tyranitar has a really nifty base Speed stat of 61 meaning it can outpace base 60s and under who run a similar spread, such as Aegislash and Crawdaunt, as well as Pokemon like Mandibuzz that often run just enough Speed for Aegislash. It also allows Tyranitar to outpace Pokemon that might be running Speed for Conkeldurr, such as Primarina, Corviknight, and Clefable.
Why do you want to outpace these Pokemon in the first place? Because Tyranitar is mostly used as an offensive wallbreaker and it has quite a lot of weaknesses (it won't take Aegislash's Steel STAB well for instance).

 

[TheMadness]

In what situation does salazzle use nasty plot ? I never use it and think an utility move like encore or disable would be more useful

 

[Jordy]

In what situation does salazzle use nasty plot ? I never use it and think an utility move like encore or disable would be more useful

It is best used when you force a switch against Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Corviknight. This makes Salazzle much more threatening overall and pressures the opponent to switch into Toxapex a lot more, ultimately allowing you to force a Toxic onto it very reliably.

 

[Shinybro64]

Would spe. def. Pex now be the go to? Seems like there's so many good def Pokemon that it seems ok.

I would think so yes. Clefable is very prominent these days, it seems only likely that Pex would run more sp def to handle Clef with vish gone.

 

[ScalchopFren]

I would think so yes. Clefable is very prominent these days, it seems only likely that Pex would run more sp def to handle Clef with vish gone.

0 SpA Clefable Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 36-43 (11.8 - 14.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever

Clef is definitely not a reason to run spdef Pex. Pex could literally minimize its spdef and Clef would be lucky to even 6HKO it. What spdef Pex COULD be useful for, however, is being a soft check to the tier's offensive special Ghosts:

252+ SpA Spell Tag Dragapult Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 132-156 (43.4 - 51.3%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery and burn damage (this is opposed to a guaranteed 2HKO vs physdef Pex)
72 SpA Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 105-124 (34.5 - 40.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery and burn damage
252+ SpA Choice Specs Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 127-151 (41.7 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery

It won't help much against most other special attackers in the tier, since several of them can pretty easily 2HKO even spdef Pex with or without setting up (depending on the mon). But, it could come in handy for these.

 

[Finchinator]

Pex running SDef for CM TBolt Clef makes some sense actually, but Ghosts, Pelipper, and RotomH make for much more likely reasons as that’s a very rare variant of Clefable.

 

[dreepYEETS]

For which matchups do people run Choice Specs instead of Spell Tag on Hex Dragapult?

 

[Ruft]

For which matchups do people run Choice Specs instead of Spell Tag on Hex Dragapult?

Choice Specs Hex Dragapult makes for an effective wallbreaker on teams that have reliable means of spreading status, such as (Toxic Spikes) Toxapex and Salazzle. It reliably breaks specially defensive Clefable with Hex for instance, which is something Spell Tag can struggle with without prior chip damage.

252+ SpA Spell Tag Dragapult Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 180-213 (45.6 - 54%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 225-265 (57.1 - 67.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[bdoubleusee]

Hey guys, I have a question about speed. I'm new to competitive battling, and have been trying to find my feet with it, especially grasping EV allocation. I've been encountering frustrating instances of Seismitoads, Copperjahs, etc. out speeding my max speed Noivern, Boltund and the likes. Even after trick room has ended (if it was even used) they seem to be quick, and although Choice Scarf (which was suggested as the culprit) could be a reason, I can't see so many people equipping slow mons with it too often when it would only realistically make them marginally faster?

Can anyone explain and ease my frustration? Cheers!

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Hey guys, I have a question about speed. I'm new to competitive battling, and have been trying to find my feet with it, especially grasping EV allocation. I've been encountering frustrating instances of Seismitoads, Copperjahs, etc. out speeding my max speed Noivern, Boltund and the likes. Even after trick room has ended (if it was even used) they seem to be quick, and although Choice Scarf (which was suggested as the culprit) could be a reason, I can't see so many people equipping slow mons with it too often when it would only realistically make them marginally faster?

Can anyone explain and ease my frustration? Cheers!

If you were playing in a Nat Dex format, might there have been a Zoroark on the opposing team that you mistook for whatever slow mon it was disguised as?

 

[Martin]

Hey guys, I have a question about speed. I'm new to competitive battling, and have been trying to find my feet with it, especially grasping EV allocation. I've been encountering frustrating instances of Seismitoads, Copperjahs, etc. out speeding my max speed Noivern, Boltund and the likes. Even after trick room has ended (if it was even used) they seem to be quick, and although Choice Scarf (which was suggested as the culprit) could be a reason, I can't see so many people equipping slow mons with it too often when it would only realistically make them marginally faster?

Can anyone explain and ease my frustration? Cheers!

Do you have a replay showing what happened? There may be a field condition or stat change or something that you’re overlooking, but without more context it’s difficult to say what’s going on